Spinning with silk

Lets's start this blog off with a project that I am currently working on (out of approximately six).

Last April I came into possession of about half a pound of hand-painted silk top from Chasing Rainbows Dyeworks. The stuff is luscious, shiny, and amazingly soft: I would never have bought something so luxurious and expensive. But when I got my second spinning wheel off of Craigslist, the seller threw in a bunch of fiber, including the silk. Of course I couldn't say no to it.

I had never spun silk before, and, given that it was so expensive, I didn't want to ruin it by making unusable yarn. But something had to be first, so I bought a lighter drop spindle (since I heard the stuff was slippery) and started working with the top that had the ugliest color.

Hand-painted silk top

I know, it is not that ugly, but I have never been much of a fan of red.

In any case, I started spinning it in May. For the first time in my spinning life I made a small sample first and wrapped it around an index card so that I could keep the singles consistent from start to finish. Usually I am not so good at planning, and my projects tend to be a bit "free-spirited".  After making the sample, I split the top up into even thirds to make a three-ply. (For you spinning newbies, that means that I will spin 3 "singles" and then ply them together).

Spinning the silk was different from wool, but this form of silk is not so different that I didn't get the hang of it pretty quickly. The most interesting part was that I had never spun anything with such a long staple before (length of individual fiber) and it was amazing how loosely I could spin it without it drifting apart.

First single, with quarter for size comparison.

I spun it on a Shacht spindle that I picked up at the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival, and although this is my first project with it, I can already tell that it is weighted just right to just spin forever.

I've had a fair amount of time to spin this summer, so I finished my third single last week, after only a month of spinning.

I am currently plying. For this project I am making an effort to be careful and have a consistent plying angle, and not so tight that the silk loses its beautiful softness. There is nothing like spinning a gift to force you to pay attention to the details! If you gift yarn, you know that the recipient is going to run their hands through every single inch, and notice every flaw.

There has only been minor trouble though. Dividing the top in three did not work, and the first single is much longer than the others. I have had to cut the single and wind some of it onto another holder to try to use as much as I can (Andean plying bracelets only work for two-ply yarn). You live and you learn.

One last picture of its current state:

Plied yarn on spindle with lazy kate

As you can probably tell from the picture, I wind my finished singles onto drinking straws so that I can ply them. That beautiful tensioned lazy kate is from Yarnsanity on Etsy, though it looks like she has stopped selling them for the moment. Because of the string with the rubber band, the singles don't come out too fast and unevenly, making my job easier. Hopefully, I will be finishing this project soon. I'll keep you posted.

Edit: Finished yarn posted here.